


An eye for an eye was never a fair trade

by decayingsuits



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Manipulation, Eret Redemption (Video Blogging RPF), Traitor Eret (Video Blogging RPF), eret has a real bad time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28099869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decayingsuits/pseuds/decayingsuits
Summary: A moment of weakness changes where Eret's loyalties lie. Sick of being a piece in a losing game, he makes a deal with uncertain terms and loses something irreplaceable for a taste of power.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 40





	An eye for an eye was never a fair trade

Water lapped lazily at the shoreline, distant horizon slowly beginning to lighten as the sun threatened to bring about morning. He dragged the heel of his boot through the sand from where he sat, the rock was cold beneath him and sent a chill through his body. The uniforms were far from warm, Wilbur never thought that far ahead, it was likely he assumed the revolution wouldn’t drag into the fall. But he was too optimistic. As the leaves hue shifted and fell dead to the earth, the revolution was rapidly losing ground. 

A sigh pulled from him as he toyed with a loose thread on his cuff, in the dim light the blue fabric looked black. Eret looked down the shoreline, the walls of L’manberg were a looming silhouette and a blemish across the scenery. He tore his gaze off of it and pushed himself from the rock, starting to pace the edge of the water, footsteps washed away by the rolling waters. 

“You’re real early, Eret.” 

He bristled and did a quick about face, hand instinctively reaching for the sword on his belt but paused in the motion. The curious head tilt and blank expression of the mask did little to set him at ease, though his hand did fall away from the weapon. He cleared his throat and pulled at his blazer, willing himself to at least visibly relax. 

“Early is on time, on time is late,” Eret responded and flexed his fingers at his sides, looking Dream over with forced neutrality. “I was hoping for this to be over and done with before the sun came up...Better late than never.” 

“There’s lots to do, can’t control how quickly they get done,” Dream’s voice drained of all amusement for a split second, but it returned as if it belonged there in the first place. His palms pressed together, index fingers pointed at him as he continued. “How are things in L’manberg? I heard through the grapevine Wilbur had big plans in the works.” 

His silence was palpable, mouth flattening into a flat line as he considered a response. Dream tipped his head the other direction in regards to his hesitation. 

“The revolutions plans don’t matter.” He folded his hands behind his back, “You seemed to have a particular interest in meeting with me. You cared enough to have Bad slip me a letter...So, what do you want?” 

Dream stilled, shoulders sagging as he dropped his hands. “Straight to the point. Can’t say I don’t understand though.” He moved past him to the edge of the water, and Eret’s nose scrunched up as he passed. Despite the scent of salt in the air, the pungent and almost sweet smell of ozone cut through it and overwhelmed him in that close proximity to the other man. It was dizzying. “We both know that Wilbur’s running out of time, that this little revolution is getting old. Aren’t you tired, Eret? I can’t imagine the never ending fighting, always losing.” 

He was horribly aware of the exhaustion that weighed at his bones; it was never easy to ignore. The corner of his mouth twitched in a near grimace. 

“Just how loyal are you to Wilbur?” 

“Beg your pardon?” 

He turned his head slightly, just barely acknowledging him. “How loyal are you? And how loyal is he to you? Do you think he’d bring you with him in a hypothetical rise to power?” Eret’s brow furrowed in response. “You can’t tell me you’ve never thought about it…” 

Dream clicked his tongue upon being met with more silence. 

“Have you ever played chess?” Dream asked. He didn’t bother waiting for a response, seemingly uncaring for one. “You move your pieces in order to protect that important piece, without your king you are nothing and you lose. Surround yourself with walls...Sacrifice the lowest…” The frown was audible in his tone, “Why are you so willingly being his pawn?"

“I am not a pawn,” he replied from behind grit teeth, staring forward to the darkened hills. Was it the blackened sky playing tricks on him or was there something glowing up there? 

“Even a knight at best, you are nowhere near being close enough to take power. Isn't that frustrating?" 

"I mean…" All he could do was work his jaw, starting to pull away. He wanted distance between him and Dream; he was quite a dangerous man after all. But a hand clasping his shoulder held him in place. Eret exhaled forcefully through his nose and resisted the incessant urge to push him away. "What are you looking for here?" 

"Something mutually beneficial." The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip. "Call it a deal. You help me, and I help you."

"What kind of strings are you attaching to this deal?” 

Eret kept his eyes trained forward on the hills. The sky had started to lighten into day and whatever had previously caught his eye finally came into focus. His stomach dropped as he recognized the purple shimmer of an enchanted bow. It was stupid of him to think Dream would come alone - he never traveled alone. Sapnap quite obviously had him in his crosshairs but George was just seated in the grass beside him, head tossed back, his posture reminiscent of boredom. 

He inhaled sharply between his teeth, annoyance boiling in his veins as Dream’s shoulders shook in silent laughter. 

“It was just a precaution, I’m sure you understand.” Dream hummed and with a gentle push turned Eret to face him again. He clasped his hands together, and as they came apart there was a black chess piece idly floating between his palms. Why did it have an almost ethereal glow to it? “How would you like to be a vital piece in this game?” 

Reeling back a full step, Eret’s eyes grew wide, looking from this king piece to the mask. He was only able to sputter for a few seconds before remembering himself, “Wh...How the hell did you do that?”

“I’m capable of a lot more than I let on.” From the way Dream turned his face, he could see the edges of a smile beneath the mask. People didn’t normally have teeth that sharp, right? “How does King Eret sound? It has a nice ring to it if I’m being honest.” 

Color flooded his cheeks and all he could think to do was rub an open hand against the side of his face, a scowl settling over his expression. “What do you want from me?”

“An opportunity. I want to break the revolution in such a way it can never be rebuilt, and I want you to give me that chance.” 

“That’s...That’s all?” He breathed, eyes fixed on the way the small item floated between Dream’s palms. “Just a way to stop them, and I get to be king in the end?” 

Eret swallowed and glanced briefly towards the figures on the hill in silent consideration. Intentional or not, the question was loaded. He weighed the deal in his head; on one hand things were bound to fail and when they did, what was to become of him? Be run to the far corners of the earth to avoid the full weight of Dream’s ire? Having a crown on his head would guarantee his safety in the end. And on the other hand, these were supposed to be his friends. They brought him in, offered him a home...But, if everything failed, he would have nothing, just like he did before. 

With a twinge of guilt, he reached out and took the chess piece from the other man. As his fingers closed around it, the object suddenly became scalding...but his hand involuntarily clenched tighter. Whatever noise he’d tried to make caught in his throat, grabbing at his wrist in a futile attempt to stop the pain from spreading. The burning agony spread through his body and filled him like boiling oil until he was brimming. 

His vision began to grow fuzzy around the edges as he finally managed to release it, a few strained sounds escaping him as he pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. His knees gave and he found himself in the sand. It was a struggle to pull his hands from his eyes, even more of one to open them and when he did, he felt sick. 

The world had grown hazy, as if watching everything from behind frosted glass. He looked around fantically, met only with blurry shapes and a lack of color. Eret yelped as he was pulled off of the ground by the back of his collar, forced to eye level with Dream, who appeared surprisingly vivid compared to the rest of the world around him. In a somewhat literal blind panic, he swung at the other man. 

Dream’s mask was knocked from its place and landed heavily in the sand, revealing what should have been a face. Now, Eret had seen parts of his face before and it was always human in appearance, but all that currently resided in the depths of his hood was static that continuously flickered and pulsed. Despite the lack of features, he could tell Dream was grinning from ear to ear. 

Eret staggered back. “What did you do to me?”

“You did this to yourself, ” he mused, turning away momentarily to retrieve his mask. In that moment, Eret could only think to run. 

Panic swelled in his chest as he blindly ran back in the general direction of L’manberg, desperate to put distance between him and...Whatever Dream actually was. He certainly wasn’t human. Things passed him in a haze, tripping over rocks and tree roots, but the further he went, the less certain he was of where he was. 

A root jutting out from the dirt caught his foot and sent him back to the ground where he rolled onto his back and laid, winded. The light was almost searing even as he squinted at the bleary morning sky, dread settling in his gut like an anchor. 

Two sets of rough hands grabbed him on either side by the sleeves and dragged him back to his feet. Even if he had been able to see, he really should have known that running away from Dream and his friends wouldn’t have worked. They hunted each other for fun. In front of him, Dream crossed his arms and sighed, fingers drumming against his bicep impatiently. He held himself like somebody about to scold a child. With a dismissive wave the grip on Eret’s arms released him and allowed him to right himself, though without the support holding him up, he became painfully aware of the new throbbing in his ankle. 

“Hope you got that out of your system,” Dream chastised and reached out to pick a leaf from Eret’s hair. 

“What did you do to my eyes?” He attempted to shift out of the other man’s but winced when he tried to take a step back. That idea was given up on quickly. 

“Call it insurance. I can’t have you backing out on our deal.” The leaf in his hand was held up closer to his mask as if he were examining it, but was eventually discarded to the ground. “There is no stopping the revolution peacefully...You’ve all made that clear. I intend to restore peace and the only way that’ll happen is if I send my message clearly. You’re going to help me kill them.”

Eret tensed, heart dropping into his stomach. His mouth moved wordlessly for a second before he could remember himself, brow furrowed and eyes narrowed. “Dismantling is one thing but this is a whole other. What makes you think I won’t just tell them all?” 

“And what will you tell them? You made a deal with their enemy in order to gain power. only to find it was more than you’d bargained for. Who do you think will side with you then?” He opened his mouth to argue with Dream but no words came to mind, only standing there with his lips parted allowing the silence to sink in heavily. “Go on, I can wait.” 

The truth was sour, and any argument he could form tasted bitter on his tongue because Dream was right. Wilbur would cast him out before he could finish his sentence. Tommy would likely try to attack him; he was a wildfire of a child and Eret had no intentions of getting burned. For a second, he considered Fundy. Always patient and painfully loyal to his father, to the place he was born. The idea of Niki or Tubbo accepting his insurrection was not far fetched, but what reason could he give not to have them reveal his indiscretion? His mouth felt dry and he was only able to hang his head, preferring the faint image of the ground to Dream’s mask, which was too lucid amongst everything.

Dream hummed in response to his hesitation, “That’s what I thought…” He picked Eret’s chin up between his thumb and forefinger. “Don’t look so down, I still plan to uphold my end of the deal. There is still a crown waiting for you at the end of the road; and hey I’m not heartless.” His hand moved away to pat his cheek with a soft laugh. 

Being thrown from a colorless and blurred world back to clear sight was beyond disorientating and unsettled his stomach slightly. He felt the need to shield his eyes from the sudden light, but chose to squeeze his eyes shut and press his knuckles against them. 

It was sight, something he’d had all of his life and almost taken for granted, but it wasn’t right. He was watching himself from a fixed point just slightly over his shoulder, as if somebody was stuck leering over him at all times. Eret wasn’t sure if he should be grateful or angrier with Dream at this point. 

“There, now you can see again.” Dream dusted his hands off against each other. “Well, as long as you behave, you’ll be able to. Conditions and all that.” He waved dismissively and pocketed his hands. “You should start planning; I'd like to be able to get this under control soon.” 

With a nod, he turned his back on him and started off. George fell into step with him easily, but before Sapnap could follow suit Eret grabbed his sleeve to stop him. He jerked out of his hold with a low noise of irritation though he did remain at the other’s side. “Dream isn’t human; what the hell is he?” 

At the question, Sapnap chuckled and scratched his cheek with one hand while the other settled on his hip. “Oh shit, yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s a demon or...Something? Honestly, he’s never been super straightforward about it, but it’s kind of cool once you get past the sharp teeth and weird eyes.” 

“Weird eyes…? He was literally just a mass of static, what are you talking about?” 

“Demon contracts are weird, I’ve heard some of the details from Bad and Skeppy, but won’t lie, kinda tuned them out after a bit cause they started getting sappy. Gross. They look pretty normal for the most part until you make deals. I guess it’s easier to get people to do business with you when you don’t look crazy.” 

“Bad is one too?” 

“Yeah, he’s not really in the market for making contracts last I heard. All I know is he’s got one with Skeppy, which is why they’re basically joined at the hip.” Sapnap shrugged and gave Eret a far too hard pat on the back, “Welcome to the team; Dream’s expecting big things from you.” He gave him two thumbs up as he moved to follow the other two, calling over his shoulder as he went, “Take a page from the demon book; invest in some sunglasses! Nobody wants to talk to a guy with fucked up eyes.”

Eret remained rooted to the spot, frozen by sheer disbelief. This had to be some strange dream, because things like this didn’t happen in real life, right? 

Right?

The walk back to L’manberg normally would have only taken him fifteen minutes, twenty at most. But with his ankle aching as much as it did it took him nearly an hour to get there. Mainly due to the fact he kept having to stop and prop himself against a tree. It was early enough in the morning that nobody had risen, so slipping through the walls and into the small wooden shack that was designated as his home was an easy enough task. It wasn’t much; a bed, a trunk for his few belongings, a shelf for his books, and a mirror. 

Eret hobbled across the small room and braced his arm against the wall beside the mirror. He found himself speechless as he viewed his reflection, mouth agape. 

He had brown eyes. He’d always had brown eyes that looked like honey when they caught the light, just like his mother. But now all that stared back at him was white. Eret touched lightly at the skin around his eyes in utter shock. There was nothing there. His brows drew together as he realized that this was what Sapnap was referring to, because this was unnerving. He couldn’t imagine somebody willingly locking eyes with him in this state. 

Something crossed his mind that gave him pause, that old saying, eyes are the windows to the soul. They hold everything and reveal the truth inside somebody and like this? The only thing left were lies, and it was laughable. And he would have laughed himself into hysterics if he wasn’t still reeling at the realization, because now he was a lie or rather, he was a liar. 

He’d lost track of time just staring at his reflection. Realization still hadn’t fully sunk in when he was forced to pull himself away from the mirror due to the approaching sound of voices outside his door. He let out a hiss of frustration and went to dig through the trunk at the foot of his bed. 

Eret had done his best to pull himself together, checking several times that the sunglasses he’d dug out hid his newfound peculiarity before he dared to leave. He made his way to the fire the others had slowly started to gather around, albeit at a very careful pace, and sat himself on the ground between Fundy and Niki who had both been eyeing him during his approach. 

“Morning Eret,” she said while pulling the kettle from the fire with a rag, pouring the contents into a small tin cup before passing it to him. 

He made a small hum in thanks and took a sip from the cup, immediately cringing at the disgustingly strong taste of the coffee he’d been offered. Coffee was never his drink of choice, but at least it warmed him and he was grateful for that much. He noticed how her stare lingered, both concerned and curious. Eret tried to ignore it by taking another long drink of his coffee, but it was too bitter to stomach that much all at once. 

“Okay, ask it.” He sighed and set the cup down, knowing full well she’d persist until an answer was given. Fundy side eyed him while warming his hands by the fire. 

“Your jacket is torn and you’ve got a limp. What happened?” 

And suddenly Eret was grateful for those glasses. 

“Went on a walk this morning and tripped on some tree roots. Might’ve rolled my ankle, but I’ll live.” Eret shrugged as Niki leaned in to examine the tear in his shoulder. “Didn’t realize I ripped my coat.”

Fundy let out an exaggerated sigh and held out his hand. “I suppose I can fix your coat, you can just owe me for it.” Despite the annoyance in his tone, there was still a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth as he did a give it here motion. 

“Can’t help out of the goodness of your heart? You’re so cruel to me Fundy.” He shrugged off his coat and passed it to him with a chuckle, “What do you want in exchange?” 

“Two emeralds.” 

“Two?!” Eret sputtered, brows raising in surprise. “It’s not even that big of a tear, that’s ridiculous.” 

The fox grinned at him while getting up, folding his coat over his arm. “Think about all the work I have to do, find the thread and dye it, where will I ever find the time?” 

“Fine, you greedy thing.” He waved him off and pulled a hand through his hair. “Two emeralds upon my coat's safe return.” 

“Pleasure doing business with you, Eret.” With a salute, he turned and padded off towards the van, tail wagging behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I love these block men :)


End file.
